A new house and resource center — complete with a wind-powered electricity generator — were taking shape today in the Near Eastside neighborhood where hundreds of volunteers were participating in the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” show to be aired in May.

The head architect today revealed some details of the 2,750-square-foot house being built for Bernard McFarland, a computer specialist at Indianapolis Public Schools’ Marshall High School. He and his three boys are in Paris and will return Saturday afternoon to see the new house before an anticipated crowd of hundreds.

The premise of the reality-TV show, in its sixth season, is to build a house in a week for a deserving family that is sent on vacation while the work is done.

The show’s host, Ty Pennington, appeared at the site shortly before noon today as builders rushed to get a roof on the house before serious rain sets in later this afternoon. Roof trusses from a Westfield company as well as wall structures were being hoisted to the upper level of the two-story house with a crane in the late morning.

Head architect Greg Cradick, 40, Westfield, said he spent five weeks designing the house, giving it what he calls a modest, urban look.

The design is “simple, responsible, and when all the cameras are gone, we want a responsible home that will trigger more development of a similar style,” he said.

Cradick said the main level will have a master bedroom; a combined living room, dining room and kitchen; an office; and a big front porch. The second story has three bedrooms for the boys, plus a bathroom. The home also has a basement, which will be used to house mechanical needs and provide storage.

The exterior will be mostly brick, but also have concrete fiber sideboard, Cradick said.

Next to the house, the 975-square-foot resource center is framed, with a rough roof, wallboard and windows already installed. The center was designed as a library for the family, and is expected to contain educational software for McFarland to use.

A courtyard patio with concrete pavers and benches will sit between the house and the resource center.

Brad Love, an executive vice president of the Carmel-based homebuilder, Estridge, said the house will have spray-foam insulation and a geothermal heating-and-cooling system.

Plus, a low-maintenance, wind-powered generator will be installed for supplemental electricity, to help keep power bills low, said Love, 49, Westfield.

Inside the house and resource center, about 200 people were working this morning. In addition, up to 400 volunteers were cleaning up the neighborhood and, in some cases, repainting other homes on streets around the McFarland home in the 2300 block of North Oxford Street.

From twentysomethings to retirees, hundreds more people — some brought lawn chairs — carried umbrellas and wore hooded sweatshirts in the spectators’ area. They braved cloudy conditions and temperatures in the upper 40s to watch the work from a distance.